Jyoti Kumari

Writer, ex-blogger, pseudo-intellectual

When not in postgraduation-done-now-what-mode, the author is mostly thinking about becoming a research scholar so that her (pseudo)intellectualism can be taken seriously. When not faffing around she can be mostly found flirting with her new-found love for The Himalayas. Movies and books are old love interests which don't appease until they come up with new antics.

I don't get the growing craze for <em>TVF Pitchers</em>, a web series brought out by The Viral Fever which traces the adventures of a group of Indian entrepreneurs. If it can't be banned for its obvious derision of Indian ethos and cultural values, it should at least be censored appropriately. After all, the web series openly talks about premarital sex, live-in relationships, shows a <em>bahu</em> arguing with her father-in-law...

Critics lambasted SS Rajamouli's magnum opus <em>Bahubali: The Beginning</em> for leaving no space for female characters to develop, and held it as an example to show how Telugu cinema is stuck in a medieval past. "Masculinity-porn", "sexist" and "testosterone-heavy epic" were some of the phrases used to describe the film. While I think deconstructing gendered representations in films is something to encourage, these readings are nowhere close to my experience of the <em>Bahubali</em>.